I recently built my first Linux (FC4) box. Perhaps my years-past Mach/BSD
experience will have proved fatal, as I created a big problem while attempting
to resolve a small one. To wit:

I had a problem with JRE in Firefox 1.5, so I started trying to fix it and ended
up
- uninstalling the JRE via RPM and then...
- unsuccessfully attempting to install the latest JRE; failing that,
and seeing that there were references in the RPM failure message
referring to older JRE / Java stuff, I began ...
- deleting everything java related in /usr/lib and /etc/alternatives.... and then
I began...
- looking at the FC4 RPMs that seemed Java related... and...

... it's pretty clear that I've totally hosed the Java piece of my FC4 installation.

So: is there a relatively painless way to undo the damage, or should I just rebuild
the machine?

Thx -hamps

You might be better off rebuilding the machine, but that your choice...

However you can change the way java is referneced and used on the system, it's not hard as long as you know how. Getting the java plugin installed and working for Firefox-1.5 is done by following the instructions found here;

http://plugindoc.mozdev.org/faqs/java.html#Linux

And re-configuring java can be done by following the directions (by me) found in this thread;

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=391882